NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 651 
thallium of mosses; but, if growing on wet peat, a lobed foliace- 
ous production similar to one of the frondose Hepatice; if in 
water, the prothallium is a fine filament, the lower end of which 
forms roots, and the upper enlarges into a nodule, from which the 
young plant is developed. The male organs of Sphagnine differ 
also from those of mosses, and, in the arrangement and form of 
the antheridia, resemble those of Hepatic. They are grouped 
in spikes at the tips of lateral branches, each of the imbricated 
perigonial leaves enclosing a single globose antheridium on a 
slender pedicel. Paraphyses surround them ; but, instead of being 
imple, as in mosses, they are very long, much-branched, and of 
cobweb-like tenuity. The leaves of the bog mosses are very pecu- 
liar and form well-known and beautiful microscopic objects. They 
are remarkable from the cell-walls being perforated by holes, 
through which it is common to find that infusoria have passed, 
which may be seen sporting about in the cell-cavity.— A. W. B. 
Peoria IN Laprat2.—In a recent number of the “ Sitzungs- 
berichte der Kais. Kön. Akademie der Wissenschaften” of Vienna, 
Dr. J. Peyritsch records the continuation of his investigations of 
Peloria, or abnormal irregularity in the flowers of the Labiate. 
finds the pelorial flower to be very commonly the terminal one in 
the inflorescence, the lateral ones being of the usual bilabiate 
type. The numbers of the parts of the calycine, corolline, and 
staminal whorls vary from two to six, the number being some- 
times uniform throughout, and sometimes varying in each whorl ; 
by far the most common arrangement being four of each. The 
pistil is usually quite regular, but in one instance the ovary was 
found to be six-lobed, surmounted by a single style and three stig- 
mas. Examples of Peloria are recorded in the following species : 
— Galeobdolon luteum, Lamium maculatum, Ballota nigra, Clino- 
podium vulgare (one only), Calamintha Nepeta, Micromeria rupes- 
tris, Nepeta Mussini, Nepeta Cataria, and Brunella vulgaris. The 
abnormal development was found more frequently in plants grown 
in the Botanic Gardens than in the wild state. = paper is illus- 
trated by several excellent lithographs. — A 
LEMNA TRISULCA IN FLowER.— The flowering of the Cruciform 
Lemna (Lemna trisulea L.) is of such extremely rare occurrence, 
that my discovering it on Belle Isle, in the Detroit river, will be 
